Read, Shop & Share Everything on Wheels

Shop

The South may rise again thanks to VW

It's been a rather short trip from VW asking whether it would build a factory in the U.S. to saying "Ja" and closing in on two locations. The decision on where the factory will be hasn't been made yet, but spots in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are the leading candidates.
Plans apparently call for a large plant, and VW wants it churning out cars by 2011. So the company needs at least 1,000 acres, and it needs to get to work on it immediately. If VW went with the site in Rocky Mount, NC, it would be placed about midway between VW's future corporate headquarters in Virginia and the cluster of suppliers around BMW's Spartanburg, SC plant. But VW is also scouting land in Anderson, SC.

Yet, even though VW hasn't announced the location, the Rocky Mount land appears to be in play. A deal for a large parcel is scheduled to close later this month. Said the farmer who owns most of it, although he hasn't met the buyers, "All I know is I'm selling it to a bunch of Germans." The plant, wherever it ends up, will build cars for North America and Europe.

Reported comments and users are reviewed by Autoblog staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate Community Guideline. Accounts are penalized for Community Guidelines violations and serious or repeated violations can lead to account termination.

Anonymous

7 Years Ago

My sources tell me that the Anderson, SC site is a done deal. It's one of the locations that BMW originally looked at. It's 15 miles west of Greenville, home to the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research, Michelin's North American headquarters, and another 10 miles from BMW North America. South Carolina is non-union, so that is most likely a big factor.

Anonymous

Oh noes! Some farmer sold his 1000 acre beet farm for a tidy sum so that VW can bring jobs to the skilled and unskilled labor markets of NC! What ever will we do!

Demand an injunction against construction immediately, or our children will not have precious, precious beets!

Selling land within the boundaries of the United States to a "bunch of Germans" doesn't mean the land gets shipped to Germany sir. That land will still be producing a product and generating jobs and tax dollars for the local economy, but at a much higher rate.

Anonymous

Anonymous

7 Years Ago

You need to do some research.

You make two bad assumptions.

One is that an assembly plant is all that matters. While the domestics are closing assembly plants due to over capacity they (and there suppliers) are still investing in plants to build components. Chrysler, the smallest of the domestics is building 2 new plants in the US.

Two is that domestic plants are not "modern, efficient" like foreign plants. I could blindfold you and take you inside a transplant factory and a domestic one and except for the logos on the cars and the workers you could not tell which was which.